Streamlining stock management: how AYBL transformed its inventory control

Women’s gym wear brand AYBL, has implemented Patchworks’ Stockr across multiple Shopify stores to enhance global stock and inventory management, generating 100% order accuracy as well as saving time, money, and boosting customer loyalty.

AYBL, founded by Reiss and Kristian Edgerton in 2018, has experienced a significant surge in demand for its sportswear. However, managing orders during peak retail periods posed a major challenge for its tech infrastructure.

To address predicted overselling during peak periods, AYBL looked for a system to synchronise their separate Shopify stores all sharing the same stock pool. Their previous technology linking its Shopify platform and WMS that ineffectively synched stock further compounded the issue. At one point the business was forced to refund £300,000 worth of orders impacting approximately 7,000 customers.

AYBL approached Patchworks for its Stockr real-time stock management solution, which had been designed for fast-growing fashion brands facing similar difficulties. Stockr is a stock control ‘live service’ product, which unifies a company’s Shopify stores to optimise stock-based management decisions. In unifying the stock pool across multiple Shopify stores, Stockr ensures that when items sell out in one, the website can draw from a single pool of stock, avoiding the common problems of both overselling and underselling.

Reiss Edgerton, CEO of AYBL said: “Spiralling sales isn’t a great thing without the foundations of effective stock management, and before Stockr’s implementation, we were almost one step forward and two back in busy retail periods. We’ve experienced the huge impact that mis-selling can have on revenue and customer loyalty.

“Patchworks’ Stockr has empowered us with real-time understanding of stock location and status, and we have consistent support from the Patchworks tech pros. This gives our store associates the right information to respond accurately to customer queries, to cross- and up-sell – and we’re building bigger revenue as a result. It’s been a real experience to see our record Black Friday orders processed without a hitch.”

Jim Herbert, CEO of Patchworks said: “Over- and under-selling probably rank as the most serious threats to revenue, aside from returns. Many brands learn the hard way, suffering lost revenue, customer loyalty and even knock-on effects such as decreased store associate satisfaction.

“AYBL’s turnaround in stock management is critical to the brand’s continued success and future development. This means that AYBL can continue their incredible growth journey without fear of overselling. And if this means further stores or geographical expansion, Stockr and the Patchworks iPaaS are right behind them to help them scale.”